Splash of summer

Summer officially arrives when the daredevil water skiers of Badgerland Water Ski Show Team perform their first strap double in the Fox River. And that day is Monday, Memorial Day, at 7 p.m. The team ranked fifth in the state last year and has been performing in many sites in Waukesha's lake country since 1983. This year it will perform Wednesday nights on the Fox River, adjacent to Frame Park in Waukesha, and monthly on Thursdays on Fowler Lake in Oconomowoc. The shows start at 7 p.m., moving to 6:30 p.m. Aug. 14 through Labor Day. They are free, but donations are welcome. | May 26, 2013»Read Full Article

Early in Friday's opening-night performance of Alchemist Theatre's "King Lear," Bo Johnson's aged king called for the map demonstrating his intended division of Britain among his three daughters. Lear's attendants dutifully unfurled it — with the bottom at the top and the top at the bottom. When they tried to hang the map up, it kept falling down.

Director Leda Hoffmann confirmed during intermission that this sequence wasn't planned. But such a topsy-turvy world aptly illustrates the disorder that descends on Britain once the hot-tempered Lear banishes his beloved Cordelia, counting on his remaining two daughters to keep him and Britain safe. | July 13, 2013»Read Full Article